REFIGURE 3:31 2020

What happens when the material body is scanned in, compressed and reconfigured virtually? Where does this non-body now exist? How do we navigate titillation and desire in relation to the simulated, representational acts of sexualised behaviour performed by virtual women? If we can access 360º scans of naked women online without restriction, what does this mean for their bodily autonomy?

Léna Lewis-King was considering these questions when she began to make "Refigure", a short ballad-turned-striptease video inspired by Blue Velvet, Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", and the otherworldly performances of Italian singer Mina.

Over the course of the 3:31 video, you see a human-like figure swaying above a stage, slowly peeling off each layer of skin-clothing, stripping down to floating lingerie and eventually disrobing into nothingness. In all this layering and delayering, you might wonder where the physical footage begins and ends - how much was performed in reality, and how much was constructed virtually. This indecipherability adds to the feeling of the 'uncanny', the same feeling evoked by interacting with photogrammed, hollowed out virtual 'people' that exist within computers and VR headsets.

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Refigure is the first in a series of short films.

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Camera Operator: Tereza Havadejova

Second Performer: Jude Forster

Costume Pattern Sewer: Hannah Creak